Demonstrators
against the immigration rules implemented by President Donald
Trump's administration, rally at Los Angeles international
airport in Los Angeles, California.REUTERS/Ringo
Chiu

WOODBURN, Ore. (AP) - Teresa Alonso Leon envisioned a better life
in a promised land when she was brought from Mexico to America as
a young girl. Instead, her family wound up in an unheated house
in Oregon with no indoor plumbing, eking out a living by picking
strawberries.

It is all the more remarkable, then, that Alonso Leon became one
of the first people brought to the U.S. illegally to become a
lawmaker in America when she was elected last November to
Oregon's Legislature.

Alonso Leon's victory "shows that human potential does not know
immigration status, and that among America's immigrants,
especially those who have come here as children and benefited
from the right to education, their potential offers leadership
for the country," said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

The irony that Alonso Leon was elected the same day that Donald
Trump beat Hillary Clinton is not lost on her.

"We didn't get our woman president that we were hoping for, but
they got me as a legislator," Alonso Leon said with a laugh in
her small office in the Oregon Capitol.

Alonso Leon, a Democrat, became a U.S. citizen in 2012. Now, with
Trump stepping up immigration enforcement, she sees herself as a
defender of her constituents. Her district is centered around the
predominantly Latino town of Woodburn, 30 miles (48 kilometers)
south of Portland.

U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, known by its acronym as
ICE, already has focused on the town, stopping two vans loaded
with workers in February and taking several people away. Alonso
Leon is a former Woodburn City Council member.

"When I think about the folks in my community who wake up so
early to go to work, and now they wake up in the morning to go to
work and hope and pray that they don't get pulled over by ICE, to
me that's just unacceptable," Alonso Leon said in an interview.
Some kids are even afraid to attend school, she said, worried
they'll return to empty homes, their parents gone.

On a recent afternoon, students streamed out of Woodburn High
School, many chatting in Spanish as they headed for their yellow
buses. Four out of five students at the school, which Alonso Leon
once attended, are Latino.

"Our Latino students see her as inspirational," said Victor
Vergara, principal of the high school's Academy of International
Studies. "They see her and think 'We can do that. She looks just
like us.'"

Since taking office, Alonso Leon has joined three other Oregon
state lawmakers in filing a public records request with ICE to
obtain details of enforcement actions, to determine how they have
changed.

Among her bills is one that would require Oregon's public
universities and community colleges to promote inclusiveness and
diversity. Another would prohibit state agencies from contracting
with companies that don't prevent sexual harassment and
discrimination. The Oregon Trial Lawyers Association said in
support of the measure that many workers face on-the-job
discrimination, and that the state shouldn't spend taxpayer money
with companies that refuse to have policies barring harassment.

Some of Alonso Leon's fellow lawmakers, however, are unhappy
about illegal immigration. Republican Rep. Sal Esquivel
introduced a bill that sought to repeal a 1987 law that made
Oregon America's first sanctuary state. The bill died in
committee.

"States need to comply with federal immigration laws," Esquivel
said in an email.

On the streets of downtown Woodburn - which resembles a Mexican
town in many ways, with numerous taquerias, signs written in
Spanish and wall murals - people are excited about Alonso Leon's
election.

"We're proud," said Manuel Villanueva, owner of El Forastero,
which sells cowboy boots and hats. "She is Latino, and can lower
the racism we see."

Several
hundred demonstrators protest President Donald Trump's executive
order which imposes a freeze on admitting refugees into the
United States.Scott Olson/Getty
Images

The possibility of more ICE raids has hurt Woodburn's small
businesses because people are reluctant to shop. Alonso Leon and
others brainstormed a solution.

"We started 'small business Saturdays' to encourage folks to eat
something new, buy something new that they've never tried
before," Alonso Leon said. Other politicians have come out in
support.

Alonso Leon comes from the Purepecha indigenous people. Hoping
for a better life, her family left San Jeronimo, a village in
Michoacan state on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro, famous for its
fishermen who use butterfly nets from canoes.

In their rented Oregon house, they used an outhouse and got water
from an outdoor hose, Alonso Leon recalled. During the winters,
they'd fill buckets and bring them inside so the water wouldn't
freeze.

"I remember this one winter, it didn't matter if we had saved
water because the water we had saved froze anyway inside the
house," she said. "Many winters, we kind of huddled up in my
parents' bedroom."

When Alonso Leon campaigned for the state House, her materials
were in English, Spanish and Russian, with Woodburn also home to
Russian Old Believers.

"I feel so much pride," Alonso Leon said, choking up with
emotion. "It's such an honor to represent one of the most diverse
communities in the entire state."

Her ascendancy comes at a key moment, House Speaker Tina Kotek
said.

"Having Teresa in the caucus and in this chamber allows her to
give voice to those Oregonians who have been particularly
impacted by the immigration rhetoric coming down from the federal
administration," Kotek said. "She's doing a great job."

Activists
hold signs as they listen during a news conference in front of
the Capitol February 1, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington,
DC.Alex Wong/Getty
Images

Nationally, at least one situation mirrors Alonso Leon's. Blanca
Rubio, who was brought illegally to the U.S. from Mexico as a
child, was elected in November to the California State Assembly.

Two other immigrants overstayed visas and became lawmakers after
obtaining U.S. citizenship: Isela Blanc, who was also elected in
November to Arizona's Legislature, and Adriano Espaillat, who won
a seat in New York's Legislature in 1996 and was elected to
Congress last year.

"They're as American as everyone else," Vargas said. "And they
love the country to the point that they make a sacrifice to serve
the public."